Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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741. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of full-time equivalent vacant homes officers by local authority in tabular form. [19449/21]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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742. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding provided for a vacant homes officer to each local authority in tabular form. [19450/21]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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744. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on whether the vacant homes schemes and policies are sufficient in addressing the vacant homes issue. [19452/21]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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745. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he receives regular updates on the number of homes applied for through the vacant homes scheme by local authority; and if so, if he will provide the figures. [19453/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 741, 742, 744 and 745 together.

The National Vacant Housing Reuse Strategy was published by my Department in 2018, since then my Department has provided funding to each local authority of €50,000 per annum. This funding is to support the work of a Vacant Homes Office, including a Vacant Homes Officer for each local authority. All 31 local authorities have claimed their funding up to June 2021 and this funding has been secured up to June 2022.

This Strategy strives to provide a targeted, effective and co-ordinated approach to identifying and tackling vacancy across Ireland. Table 1 below lists the number of Vacant Homes Officers in each local authority and if they are working as a Vacant Homes Officer full-time with only that responsibility, or if the role comprises part of their duties or they are employed part-time as a Vacant Homes Officer:

Table 1

There are a number of supporting schemes available to assist property owners to bring their vacant properties back into use for social housing – the Repair and Lease Scheme, the Buy and Renew Scheme or Long Term Leasing.

- The Repair and Leasing Scheme is targeted at owners of vacant properties who cannot afford or access the funding needed to bring their properties up to the required standard for rental properties. The scheme provides upfront funding to carry out the works and, in return, the property owner agrees to lease the dwelling to the local authority to be used as social housing for a period up to 25 years. The maximum loan for property repair available under the Repair and Lease Scheme has been increased by my Department from €40,000 to €60,000.

- The Buy and Renewinitiative allows local authorities to purchase private vacant properties for use as social housing.

- The Housing Acquisitions Fundis a €70 million revolving that was established in January 2017 with the objective of enabling the Housing Agency to acquire vacant units from banks and investment companies for social housing use. The fund is replenished by the Housing Agency through the sale of units primarily to the AHB sector and the funds received are then recycled back into the fund for future acquisitions.

Table 2 below gives a breakdown of the number of properties delivered under each of the schemes in each local authority.

My Department will continue to keep the Vacant Homes Schemes and the various functions of the Vacant Homes Offices under review with ongoing feedback from our Vacant Homes Officers.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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746. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funding provided to each local authority for preventative maintenance in each of the years 2015 to date. [19454/21]

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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747. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his plans in relation to addressing social housing conditions given recent findings by the ECSR. [19455/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 746 and 747 together.

Management and maintenance of the circa 140,000 local authority housing stock is very important. In accordance with section 58 of the Housing Act, 1966 local authorities are legally responsible for the management and maintenance of their housing stock. Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure that all of their tenanted properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 2019. Local authority officials and elected members have a very important role to play in this regard by making adequate budgetary provision for housing repairs and cyclical maintenance utilising the housing rental income available to them as part of the annual budgetary process.

Notwithstanding the legal obligation on local authorities to manage and maintain their own stock, my Department does provide annual funding support to local authorities for management and maintenance under a number of funding programmes.

Under the Voids Programme, my Department has supported local authorities in refurbishing vacant social homes and returning them to productive use. This funding programme was introduced in 2014 and has to the end of 2020 returned 16,102 properties to use with funding of €229m from my Department.

In 2020, my Department rolled out the largest ever voids funding programme. With additional funding of €40m secured by me under the July Stimulus Programme. Funding of €58.3m was made available to local authorities which saw 3,607 vacant properties funded last year.

Under the Energy Efficiency Programme, my Department funds the carrying out of retrofitting works to local authority dwellings. From 2013-2020 the Programme was implemented in 2 Phases: Phase 1 Attic Insulation/Cavity Wall Insulation and Phase 2 focuses on the fabric upgrades to dwellings. Over the period 2013 to 2020 over 73,500 units of social housing stock have been retrofitted with a total exchequer spend of €161 million under the scheme (most of which were completed under Phase 1).

The Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme for 2021 is a newly revised Retrofit Programme and this is the first year of a ten year programme that sees a significant upscaling (from ‘shallow’ to ‘deep retrofit’) on what has been completed by local authorities to date. The upscaling of the works included in the programme sees a substantial overall increase in funding made available for insulation, windows & doors, with a significant increase for the upgrading of the heating system, specifically for the installation of a Heat Pump and associated works (the revised programme no longer supports the installation of boilers). A budget of €65m has been made available for Energy Efficiency retrofitting in 2021, this includes €20m for the Midlands Retrofit Programme. The programme targets 2,400 social homes for upgrade works in 2021, 750 of which relate to the Midlands Retrofit Pilot.

Under the Disabled Persons Grant Scheme, my Department funds local authorities in carrying out necessary adaptation works to local authority properties to cater for the needs of elderly and disabled tenants and families living in overcrowded conditions in local authority properties. Since 2011 my Department has provided exchequer funding of some €120m to support this programme.

Under the Regeneration Scheme, my Department funds programmes of estate regeneration in a number of targeted areas around the country. This programme focuses on the remediation and upgrade of existing local authority homes within defined areas of disadvantage and can also provide for some new homes as part of the overall regeneration plan for the area. Since 2015 over €300m of exchequer funding has been provided to support this programme.

Since 2011 my Department has provided funding of over €800m under the above stock improvement schemes.

We are committed to ensure that future improvement works are driven by strategic and targeted work programmes informed by stock condition surveys and work is continuing between officials from my Department and the local authority sector, through the City and County Management Association, to drive a planned maintenance approach to the maintenance of local authority housing stock. This will see circa 140,000 local authority social housing properties surveyed over a 4/5 year period, commencing in late 2021. These stock condition surveys will inform future work programmes, funding requirements and allocations.

My Department will continue to fund local authorities for stock improvement works but it is also important that local authorities increasingly seek to move to a planned management and maintenance approach of their housing stock.